The Past is a Different Story
by cutie3239
Summary: Kitty Lang has died, seen the apocalypse, and has has even gotten pregnant. But what was her life like before any of those events? And how did she get there? This is her journey. -Prequel to Fall Down Then Get Back Up. Dean/OC.
1. Chapter 1

**So as I continue and get further and further with my story of Kitty Lang, I wondered what her past was like; the first four years of _Supernatural_. And so came the birth of _The Past is a Different Story._ If you haven't read anything else of mine yet, check out _Fall Down Then Get Back Up, And Keep on Fighting, _and _Until the End, _the other three stories about Kitty. Enjoy!**

* * *

_4 weeks before __**Season 1: Episode 1 – Pilot**__. _

* * *

Kitty Lang sat on the hood of her sparkling blue 1970 Chevy Chevelle and looked up at the clear night sky. For once, her soft, wavy blonde hair wasn't tied up and it fell behind her back, stopping at about the middle of her shoulder blades. Her baby blue eyes stared up at the sparkling sky as her shadow washed through the windshield of the car and danced across the white leather seats. It was the one thing she hated about her mom's old car, but she would never remove them.

When she was about two-years-old, her mother had died in a car accident. Since then, it was only her, her dad, and her older sister, Cassandra. Case was the best sister growing up, and being almost five years older than she was, Case took care of Kitty while their dad "worked." Well, if you could count hunting the supernatural as a job. But her life wasn't that bad. Her dad would hunt with other hunters on occasion, and one even had two kids about Kitty's age.

That was who she was waiting for. The black Chevy Impala that eventually did drive up the road brought her one of her oldest friends that she could remember. And as soon as the car had parked, Kitty was running toward the driver's side door. When the driver got out, she was quickly jumping onto the man, slamming him back against the car. "Dean!" she cried with a laugh as she pulled him into a tight hug. "God, I've missed you like hell."

"Hey, Kitty," he laughed as he pushed her back a little. It hadn't been that long since the last time she saw Dean, only a few months ago. But since his brother, Sam, had gone to college and mad the Winchester family go a little pear-shaped, the two friends hadn't seen each other as often as they once had. "Where's Case?"

Releasing a hard sigh, Kitty began to walk away from Dean and the Impala, saying over her shoulder, "Somewhere in California, I guess. Last thing I heard from Dad was that she had gotten hitched to some guy in LA and went off the radar again." So her all-too-perfect sister had a flaw. She wanted to get married, and to do that, Case left in the middle of the night unexpectedly and never came back. "Since then, I've been on my own."

"That's not safe, Kitty," Dean warned as he followed after Kitty and into the field. "You should have called me, though."

With an evil smile on her face, she turned and looked up at Dean. "Then I would have been distracted," she replied as she leaned toward Dean. "You're just _too_ good looking."

Kitty could see Dean's expression change. He couldn't handle the taunting behavior that she always had, and she knew it. The only thing better than seeing Dean's face after six months was that the term "friends with benefits" applied.

* * *

_Present Day – __**Season 1: Episode 1 Pilot**_

* * *

The cool October air rushed around Kitty as she walked through the middle of a forest in Oregon, her untied blonde hair blowing around her face as the sun struggled to stay above the horizon. With mud streaking her hands and her face, the young woman had just spent the past two hours locating an unmarked grave, and burned the body of a man who – even in his afterlife – still liked to take a razor to the throat of any girl who looked like his daughter.

The research was easy, and Kitty quickly had figured out that it was a ghost who haunted an old highway, but finding the grave proved to be nearly impossible. By the time Kitty made it back to the Chevelle, she was dirty, tired, and had ruined her favorite pair of boots.

"Guess I have to go shopping," Kitty sighed as she slipped off the destroyed heeled boots and slipped her feet into a pair of flip-flops. Froom the backseat of the Chevelle and inside her duffle bag, she heard her phone ring, and she reached over the seat while dropping the broken boots back there while grabbing her phone. A sly grin formed across her face as she recognized the number. "What, you miss me already?"

"_Something like that,"_ Dean replied with what seemed to be a heavy and tired voice. _  
"Listen, are you on a job right now?"_

"Just finished," Kitty replied as she took a box of wet-wipes out from under the passenger's seat and started cleaning off her face. "Whatever you need, I'm yours. My amazing knife collection, my spy abilities, my company…"

"_Dad's missing, and I need help."_ That was all Dean needed to say for Kitty to drop the wipe and focus on the phone call at hand, her game face coming on. _"I'm heading up toward Stanford to grab Sam, but I don't know if he'll be enough."_

"I'll meet you at Stanford as soon as I can," Kitty replied as she pulled the car back onto the road, heading toward the university as quickly as she could. "We'll grab Sam – kicking and screaming, if needed – and we'll find your dad."

* * *

A flat tire and running out of gas forced Kitty to be later than she planned, but she still trudged to California as quickly as she could. "Two days late," she mumbled as she pulled onto the drive that Sam's apartment was supposed to be on. She would have continued her grumbling if a police barricading the road hadn't stopped her.

Firetrucks and ambulances filled the street, and people crowded around to see the apartment that was caught on fire, lighting the night sky with its glow. "Shit," she stated as she dug in her glovebox until she found an appropriate ID, then got out of the car.

"Can I help you, miss?" the young and tired officer asked as Kitty approached him.

Flashing the badge, she answered, "I'm Detective Sophie Harper, state police." In reply, the officer waved her through the barricade, not asking any more questions. She would have laughed about the incompetence of the officer on any normal day, but Kitty could make out the Impala through the crowd, and as calmly as she could, she made her way toward it.

She placed her hand on Dean's arm from where he stood at the end of the Impala while Sam was talking to one of the gawking people. "What happened?"

Dean glanced at Kitty, and slightly smiled before he pushed his hands deeply into the pockets of his leather jacket. "Yellow-eyed demon," he answered with a nod toward Sam. "Sammy's girlfriend was in the apartment."

Her eyes flickered from the apartment to Sam, shock and horror filling her expression. With a single glance at the way Sam was standing, she knew instantly that nothing was okay. "What's next?" Kitty asked as she leaned on the side of the car next to Dean, keeping an eye out for the cop that let her in.

"Dig around here, see if we can pull anything up," Dean answered with a final glance toward Sam before he looked at Kitty. "Dad left coordinates. Someplace called Blackwater Ridge in Colorado. Ever heard of it?"

"Drove by there a couple of times," Kitty replied as she sighed heavily. "It's in the middle of nowhere in a national forest."

"That's where we're headed." Sam had walked up to them so quietly that no one even heard his approach. "You coming?"

In every aspect of Sam, Kitty could tell that he was struggling to not fall apart. "Wouldn't miss it."


	2. Chapter 2

"I didn't realize how far into the forest Blackwater Ridge was," Kitty observed as she and Sam looked over the map on the wall of the ranger station. "There's no easy way to get in there."

"It's cut off by these canyons here," Sam said as he traced a line with his finger on the map. "Rough terrain, dense forest, abandon silver and gold mines all over the place…"

"This place is literally a death wish," Kitty said with a sigh of wonder. If it hadn't been a natural place, she would have guessed that someone designed it. It was nearly impossible to get to, and twice as hard to get out of.

"Dude," Dean interrupted as he looked at a case of pictures, "check out the size of this freaking bear."

The two walked over and looked at the photo Dean was pointing to. Sure enough, there was a man standing behind a bear that was twice the size of any normal bear. "You know, this area is known for its large population of bears," Kitty commented as her eyes drifted through the pictures. "This is not going to be a calming walk in the woods. What are we even looking for?"

"You aren't planning on going out near Blackwater Ridge by any chance?" A senior ranger was standing directly behind the group, and when he spoke, he sent them all spinning in surprise.

Kitty smiled politely and walked over to the man. "We're actually bio majors from UC Boulder. Just looking for some information on a paper-"

"Bull," the ranger interrupted. He had a hard glare on his face as he eyed the three hunters. "You're friends with that Haley girl, aren't you?"

Dean smiled, taking the opportunity. "Yes, we are, Ranger… Wilkinson." He flashed Kitty a cocky smile, like he was so smart, and Kitty rolled her eyes like he was so stupid.

"Well, I will tell you exactly what we told her," Ranger Wilkinson sighed as he walked behind a desk. "Her brother filled out a backcountry permit saying he wouldn't be back from Blackwater until the twenty-fourth , so it's not exactly a missing persons now, is it? You tell that girl to quit worrying. I'm sure her brother's just fine."

"She's just kinda overly-cautious, you know?" Kitty asked as she leaned against the counter. "And, you know, it would help calm her down if we showed her a copy of the permit. Just so she could actually see when her brother's return date is."

The ranger eyed Kitty, then nodded his head as he walked into a back office. Kitty smiled at the boys as she leaned against the counter. "Why are you grabbing the permit?" Sam asked in a low whisper. "I mean, we should just walk go straight to Blackwater Ridge. Find Dad."

"Sam, if there's one thing my dad always taught me," Kitty answered in a low whisper, "is that, whenever there's a missing person report in the same area you are, you should follow up on it. Make sure you know what the hell you are getting into before it bites you in the ass."

Sam just stared at Kitty for a moment, then glanced over at Dean who was snickering silently. "She's got ya there, Sammy."

* * *

When they got back outside, Kitty read quickly through the permit till she found an address. "Okay, so Haley Collins and her family live at 15 Oak Street," Kitty read off the permit. "Figure I'll go up there and talk to Haley while you to get the motel rooms."

"Why do you decide that you get to go?" Dean demanded as he glanced down at her.

"Because I'm a girl who isn't going to be looking at Haley like she's a piece of meat and may actually get something from her."

"Or she may ignore you completely and-"

"Can you two stop arguing for once?" Sam asked with a sigh. "We'll all go. That way nothing is missed."

Kitty nodded at Sam, then glared misheviously at Dean. "I bet I'll beat you there."

With a smirk, Dean glanced at Kitty over the Impala before saying, "I doubt it."


	3. Chapter 3

Kitty stood in front of the door of the Collins' house with Sam and Dean as they waited for someone to open the door. The sun was just starting to drift lower into the sky, and a cool wind made her loose hair fly in the wind.

Upon opening the front door, a young brunette woman looked out at the trio through a screen door. "Hi," Kitty smiled before Dean could put his two cents in. "You must be Haley. I'm Kitty, and these are my colleagues: Sam and Dean. We're rangers from the Park Service, and we were hoping t ask a few questions about your brother, Tommy."

Haley looks from once face to the other, then back to Kitty. "Lemme see some ID." With a soft smile, Kitty pulled out an ID badge that stated she was "Katherine Jameson" and placed it against the screen. "Okay, come in," Haley sighed, and opened the door for them.

They walked into the house and stepped into the kitchen, where the youngest member of the Collins family was sitting at his laptop. "So," Sam said as they walked into the kitchen, "if Tommy's not due back for a while, how do you know something's wrong?"

While placing a bowl onto the table next to her brother, Haley replied, "He checks in every day by cell. He emails, photos, stupid little videos—we haven't heard anything in over three days now. And he has a satellite phone, so there's no reason he shouldn't have been in contact."

"Could it be he's just having fun and forgot to check in?" Dean asked, and the young boy looked up at him with a scowl.

"He wouldn't do that."

Haley sighed heavily and laid more food out onto the table. "Our parents are gone," she explained. "It's just my two brothers and me. We all keep pretty close tabs on each other."

"I understand," Kitty answered as she glanced over at a row of pictures of the Collins family. "My sister and I are the exact same way."

"So you must believe that there's something wrong then."

Kitty looked at Haley, then away. She wish she could believe, to fully understand. But she still hadn't heard anything from her sister, Case, in some months, and she wasn't exactly sure when the next time she would.

"Can I see the pictures he sent you?" Sam asked, and Haley nodded in reply and walked over to a laptop with Sam.

As they looked over the pictures, Dean stepped up next to Kitty and leaned down next to her ear. "What are you thinking?"

With a shrug, she replied in a whisper, "With the coordinates from your dad, and what I've found out about this family, there's no doubt that this is a job."

"That's what I'm thinking," he whispered back before walking over to where Sam and Haley were talking. "Well, we'll find your brother. We're heading out to Blackwater Ridge first thing."

"Then maybe I'll see you there," Haley answered, and it caught everyone completely off-guard. "Look, I can't sit around here anymore. So I hired a guy. I'm heading out in the morning and I'm gonna find Tommy myself."

"I get how you feel," Kitty said as she took a step toward Haley. "I'd do whatever it took to get my sister back. Just be prepared."

* * *

"'Be prepared,'" Dean stated with a laugh as he took a sip of a beer. The group had went to a bar after talking to the Collins' family, and quickly the poking of egos started. "I can't believe you told her to be prepared."

"What would you have had me tell her?" Kitty asked with a friendly smirk. "Would you have me tell her: 'Hey, you're brother could be missing his heart because a werewolf ripped it out'?"

"I would have loved to see the look on her face if you did say that."

Clearing his throat loudly, Sam brought back the attention and focus to the job. "Blackwater Ridge doesn't get a lot of traffic. Local campers, mostly. But still, this past April, two hikers went missing out there. They were never found."

"So not werewolves," Kitty answered before she took a long pull of her beer. "What does your dad's journal say about this?"

Sam pulled open John's journal and flipped to a couple of articles that were in the journal. "Back in 1982, eight different people all vanished in the same year. Authorities said it was a grizzly attack, and again in 1959, and again before that in 1936."

"There's a pattern," Kitty murmured as she pulled the articles to her and looked at the pages. "Every twenty-three years. Almost to the date…"

"You're going to want to see the video I downloaded from that guy, Tommy," Sam answered, and he turned his laptop so that Kitty and Dean could see it as well. Slowly, the video played going frame by frame. And in three of the frames, it was visible of a shadow moving behind Tommy in the video.

"Do it again," Dean demanded, and they watched the frames pass slowly again.

"That thing is moving," Kitty commented. "Given that you only see it in three frames and an average video camera takes 30 frames per second, that thing must have been booking it."

Dean then reached over and smacked Sam in the arm. "Told you something weird was going on."

"Has there been any survivors?" Kitty asked, ignoring Dean acting like a complete child but still gently smiling all the same.

"Yeah," Sam answered as he pulled the newspaper articles back from her. "In '59, one camper survived this supposed grizzly attack. Just a kid. Barely crawled out of the woods alive."

"Does he have a name?" Den asked as he motioned for the waitress to bring him another beer.

"Yeah," Sam answered as he looked at the article. "Doesn't give the first name, but his last name is Shaw."

"Then I guess this guy's our biggest clue," Kitty sighed as she got up and stretched out her shoulders. "I'll go talk to him. You boys do more research and get ready for the hike we have in the morning."


	4. Chapter 4

"Mr. Shaw, I appreciate you allowing me to ask you a few questions about what happened." Kitty had a soft smile on her face as she followed the elderly man into his home. It was a dark place, and it took a little convincing to even get Shaw to let her into his home.

"Look, Ranger Jameson, I don't know why you're asking me about this," the old man sighed as he dropped into an armchair and took a drag of his cigarette. "It's all public records and I was only a kid. Like I told the police, my parents got mauled by a grizzly."

Kitty sat down on the edge of a coffee table in front of the older man. "Is that what you really believe?" she asked in a soft and gentle voice. "All the other people who went missing that same year were all because of a grizzly? And the people this year as well?"

"It –" Shaw started before he flicked his cigarette into an ashtray. "It couldn't be anything else."

Kitty grabbed the older man's hand, pulling his attention to her. "We both know that it wasn't a bear," she answered in a firm tone. "And if my partners and I knew what we were dealing with, we'd be able to stop it. So tell me what you saw. What you _really_ saw."

Looking from their hands to her face, a distant fear crossed behind Shaw's eyes. "You won't believe me," he said in a distant voice that matched his fear. But the look that Kitty gave him in returned was one of pure trust, so the old man sighed and recounted his story. "It moved too fast to see, and it hid too well. But I could hear it. A roar like no man or animal I've ever heard."

Shaw took a shaky breath and squeezed Kitty's hand, which she squeezed back. "It got inside our cabin. I was asleep in front of the fireplace when it came in. It didn't smash a window, or break down the door… It _unlocked_ it. Do you know of a bear that could do something like that? I didn't even wake up until I heard my parents screaming.

"It dragged them off into the night," he continued, his voice beginning to break with the first sign of tears. "Why it left me alive… I've been asking myself that ever since it happened. But it did leave me this, though."

Shaw pulled his hand away from Kitty's and opened the collar of his shirt, revealing three long scars. "There's something evil in those woods," he finished as his hands moved away from his shirt. "It was some sort of demon."

* * *

Kitty walked into the motel room that night and didn't even look at Sam and Dean until her back hit the mattress. Then the she recounted everything that Shaw had told her before the boys could even speak. "It's something living," she finished as she rubbed her tired eyes. "Something with claws, and breathes… And bleeds."

"Which means we can kill it," Dean finished from where he stood, leaning against a table with his arms crossed.

Then, with his dreary outlook on the world, Sam said, "We can't let that Haley girl go out there."

Kitty propped herself up into a somewhat sitting position by her elbows, and gave Sam a hard look. "You know you won't be able to stop her," she stated, and before he could reply, she cut him off. "If it were Dean lost in the woods, you wouldn't listen to anyone else tell you no. So the best we can do is to go with her and make sure the thing that's out there doesn't get her."

Sam looked over to Dean for backup, where he found none. "I'd hate to admit it, but you know she's right," he said with a heavy sigh. "That chick's going in there whether we like it or not."

"Finding Dad isn't enough?" Sam asked in a hard tone as he slammed his hand down on the table. "Now we have to babysit too?"

The two brothers were locked in a hard glare for a moment, and Kitty took that as her cue to leave. "I'll be in my room," she quietly said as she got up from the bed and made her way to her own motel room.

Once she got into the single-bed room, Kitty rummaged through her bag for a pair of sweatpants and a loose camisole before changing into them. They still had the distinct smell of the salty ocean from her the last time she wore them. It was rare that she used motel washing machines, but because that one used salt water, she had watched all of her clothes.

The steady beep of an incoming call dragged Kitty away from her memory of salt water and sunshine. And at first glance at the caller-id, she had almost passed out. "Case?" she asked once she answered. "Where the hell have you been?"

"_Relax, Kit,"_ Case said on the other end of the phone. _"I'm fine."_

"Fine?" Kitty laughed dryly. "I don't think the definition of 'fine' is the answer to my question."

"_It doesn't matter right now. What matters right now is that I have a favor to ask."_

She rolled her eyes and dropped heavily into the bed. "You want me to do you a favor? After the awesome favor you did me by leaving me with Dad?"

"_That's actually kinda what the favor involves,"_ Case replied. _"I need you to get Dad off my tail. I don't exactly want Scott to know what our family business is."_

Kitty pinched the bridge of her nose before taking a deep breath. She was falling back into the same routine of pulling Case out of their dad's hands just before he strangled her. "I'll figure something out."

"_Thank you!" _Case sighed heavily on the other side of the phone. _"I owe you so much. Next time you're in the California area, let me know. I'll take you out to dinner at this awesome place where-"_

"Case," Kitty huffed, cutting her sister off before she could say another word, "I have a job in the morning and need to get some sleep."

"_Oh, yeah._" There was the slight sound of disappointment in her sister's voice, but she knew that she had to ignore it. _"Well, be safe."_

Clicking off the phone, Kitty realized that she had just broken the record for the longest time it had taken to talk to her sister. The two had been nearly inseparable growing up, but as Case grew more distant from the hunter's life, Kitty had grown more attached to it.


	5. Chapter 5

Kitty yawned heavily as she swung her leg out of the Chevelle. She was in tight, knee-length running pants with hiking boots on. After what happened to her stylish boots, she wasn't going to risk another pair. Hidden underneath of her light black zip-up sweatshirt was a red camisole. As she lifted her arms above her head and stretched her back, the smallest amount of her sleek abs peaked out from under the bottom of her sweatshirt, along with the handle of her gun that rested in a holster.

She then pulled out a black backpack from behind her seat that held a change of clothes and her favorite knives. She wasn't about to walk into the woods without a knife on her, and the amount of clothes she had on prevented her from easily carrying one on her person.

"You're seriously going to carry a gun holster?" Dean asked as he got out of the Impala and came around to stand next to her.

Kitty quickly ran her eyes up and down Dean and Sam's apareal. They were dressed in their usual attires, and she couldn't help but laugh slightly. "You two are going to be so uncomfortable when we're out of there."

Dean smirked at Kitty, then headed toward where Haley, Ben, and a man were standing at the beginning of a trail. "You guys got room for a few more?"

"You want to come with us?" Haley asked, skeptically, as her small group turned to face the approaching hunters.

"Who are these guys?" the man asked as he ran his eyes from Sam to Dean, and then rested on Kitty, a moment longer than she appreciated. Though she had to keep a straight face on, she mentally rolled her eyes. Just because she was petite and fragile-looking, people expected her to be weak.

"Apparently," Haley huffed, "this is all the park service could muster up for the search and rescue."

The man looked back toward the group, and while he asked, "You're rangers?" Sam walked past him and started his way on the trail.

"Last time I check, we were," Kitty answered as she adjusted her backpack on her shoulders. "Unless, for some reason, my ID badge has for some reason turned into playdough."

"You, I can see being a ranger," the man huffed as he gestured toward Kitty. "But your companions are in jeans and biker boots."

Dean laughed slightly as he looked down at himself. "I don't do shorts."

"He's new," she explained, before walking past the group and heading after Sam.

When she caught up to him, she glanced over her shoulder and realized that the rest of the group had finally decided to follow them. "Let's start taking bets on who kills that guy first: me, you, Dean, or the mystery creature."

* * *

Kitty had eventually learned that the man's name was Roy, and he was a local hunter and guide in the area that knew Blackwater Ridge pretty well. With him walking in the front, and Dean and Sam walking near Haley in the middle, Kitty ended up walking next to the kid brother, Ben, and the two chatted mildly as they walked.

"What kind of knife is that?" he asked as Kitty pulled another knife out from her backpack and handed it to Ben.

"A Tantotian stainless steel folding knife, so be careful that you don't accidently close it and cut your fingers off," she explained. Kitty took great value in her knives, and she loved to play 'show and tell' with them. There were few things she loved more than a sharp blade.

While Kitty watched as Ben looked over the cure of the knife, she heard Dean start a conversation with Roy. "So you said that you did a little hunting before. What kind of furry critters do you hunt?"

She watched the man's shoulders bunch a bit more, further confirming to Kitty that Roy did not think that Dean was any form of amusing. "Mostly buck. Sometimes bear."

"Tell me," Dean smirked as he sauntered past Roy, "did Bambi or Yogi ever hunt you back?"

Opening her mouth to try and change the subject, Kitty was just a touch slower than Roy, who grabbed Dean's shoulder and pulled him back. The group stopped, and she flashed her eyes to Sam. In that glance, both hunters shared the same thought: if Roy didn't take his hand off of Dean – and quick – he won't have a hand for much longer.

"Whatcha doing, Roy?" Dean asked, and Kitty could just about feel the roughness in his voice as he tried to holdhimself back.

With an annoyed and angered look, Roy picked up a stick and slammed it down into the group, causing a bear trap to snap itself shut around the stick. It was placed just in the place where Dean was about to place his foot. "You should watch where you're stepping, _Ranger_," Roy hissed at Dean before he continued walking.

Ben followed Roy, with Sam walking a bit more slowly after them before the other three continued to walk. Kitty fell into step beside Dean, shoving her shoulder into his arm. "Are you trying to break cover?" she whispered over to Dean. "Or are you trying to lose your leg?"

"I survived," Dean grumbled back, causing Kitty to roll her eyes.

Just when Kitty thought they were going to have a moment of peace, Haley reached forward and grabbed both of their arms, turning them around to face her. "Okay," she sighed heavily as a glare started to form across her brow, "so who the hell are you guys? You didn't pack any provisions, you're carrying a _duffel _bag, and you're _not_ rangers."

Dean and Kitty exchanged a quick glance before she sighed in defeat and said, "Tell her."

With a glance toward the group, Dean answered Haley's questions. "Sam and I are brothers – Kitty's a family friend. We're looking for my dad. He might be here, he might not be, but I figured that – you and me – we're on the same boat."

Haley looked up at Dean and asked, "Why didn't you just tell me that from the start?"

"I'm telling you now, aren't I?" Dean asked, he's cocky smile starting to take form. "'Sides, it's probably the most honest I've ever been with a woman. Ever."

"You've never been honest with me?" Kitty asked as she placed a hand on her hip, begging Dean to make a comment so she'd have a reason to hit him.

"You're different," he answered, which was all Kitty needed in answer for her to gently punch Dean in his shoulder. "Ow! Why are you so abusive?"

"You need some abuse once in a while," she replied as she turned and continued on the trail, leaving Dean and Haley behind as she quickened her pace to catch up with the group.

* * *

Kitty had ended up behind Roy at some point in the hike, which made her a bit angry since the entire time he kept making comments on how she would end up getting hurt. "I've free-climbed cliffs in the Grand Canyon. I think I can handle climbing a simple rocky slope," she hissed at Roy when they hit a rocky hill and she happened to slip on a loose rock. The comment he made at that point wasn't appreciated, and Kitty would have shot him if they were the only two in the woods.

"You just don't seem like the kind of girl to get down in the dirt," Roy commented as he scanned his eyes over Kitty for what felt like the billionth time. "Remind me more of those Californian girls who spend their time running on a treadmill."

"Never stepped foot on a treadmill," she replied as she flexed her tense should muscles. "My dad travels for work, so my sister and I grew up all over the US. I went running down the Appalachian Trail when I was eight, swimming in each of the Great Lakes, and was even lucky enough to go through a few mock-Green Beret courses." Granted, the Green Beret course she went through was designed by a former Green Beret who turned hunter and became friends with her father after having a run-in with a demon on one of his missions.

"Well, then you're just a pampered princess," Roy judged, and Kitty stopped dead in her tracks. _That's it_, she thought to herself as she reached for one of her throwing knives in the side of her backpack. _He's getting a silent death_. "This is it. Blackwater Ridge," Roy stated just as Kitty's hand wrapped around the handle of a blade.

A firm hand grasped her wrist and pulled it back down to her side, and Kitty glared at Sam who just shook his head before releasing her, then he asked, "What coordinates are we at?"

Roy pulled out a GPS and read, "Thirty-five and minus one-eleven."

Dean came over to Sam and Kitty, then asked, "Do you guys hear that?"

Listening intently, Kitty was going to reply that she had no idea what he was talking about, before she realized what his meaning was, and Sam answered him. "Yeah. Not even crickets."

"Then whatever it is that's stalking these woods," Kitty whispered as she took a quick scan of the area, "is somewhere in this area."

"I'm gonna go take a look around," Roy declared as he started to walk away.

"Go right ahead," Kitty answered, just as Sam stated, "You shouldn't go by yourself."

Rolling her eyes and begging that he wouldn't listen to Sam, Roy waved his gun in the air and continued on the path that he was inventing. "We need to stay together," Dean sighed in reply. "Let's go."

"Do we have to?" Kitty whispered as she glared ahead, just being able to make out Roy's shoulders. "I'd prefer he'd get eaten before I'd have to waste a bullet on him or bloody one of my knives."

Dean chuckled lightly as he shook his head. "You really have the makings of being a serial killer, you know that?"

"Yup," she answered, not even bothering to deny it.

* * *

"Oh, my god." Haley's voice was filled with shock, and it caused Kitty to run even harder up the hill, coming to a quick stop just behind Sam. They had found the campsite, which looked more like a scene out of a horror movie than a place to rest after a hard day of hiking.

Blood stained all the torn material of what used to be tents, while different supplies were thrown across the clearing. Kitty broke away from the group and stepped up to one of the tents, inspecting the material where some creature had torn it to shreds.

She dropped her bag onto the ground and picked up a piece of the destroyed tent. "Looks like a grizzly," Roy stated as he came up behind her, and Kitty shook her head slightly. It was almost exactly like the scar that was on the old man, and it didn't remind her of something a bear would have done.

Getting up, Kitty tiptoed across the clearing, her eyes on the ground as she watched the path of what had to be where the bodies were dragged. "Look at this," Kitty said, just loud enough to get Sam and Dean's attention. "What drags its victims away from its kill site, and then suddenly vanishes into thin air?"

"No skinwalker or black dog," Dean replied as they made their way up to the campsite. "Tracks just don't vanish."

The group looked over the destroyed campsite. From the amount of destroyed, bloody things that Kitty stumbled across, she had doubt that the boys who had gone camping were still alive. She'd seen enough death to know that, that amount of blood was never a good thing.

"Help!" someone screamed suddenly from deep within the woods. "Help!"

The shrill voice brought everyone to attention, and Kitty slipped her gun out of the holster before taking off into the woods after the voice. She followed the voice to where she thought she'd heard it, but after circling around trees and finding nothing, an uncomfortable thought crept into her mind.

Slowly slipping her gun back into the holster and followed the rest of the group back to the campsite. Upon arrival back, though, they discovered that all of their supplies were missing. "Shit," she mumbled under her breath as she looked at the place where her backpack should have been.

"So much for my GPS and satellite phone," Roy complained as he looked about the camp.

"Screw your gadgets," Kitty hissed as a hard glare crossed her face. She was done with the man's superior demeanor, and she was about ready to knock the wind out of him. "Those are things you can survive without. How much do you want to bet you'll survive when your shotgun's two bullets are used?"

Roy was about to make a comment back at Kitty, but Haley demanded, "What the hell is going on?"

"Whatever is going on," Kitty answered as she turned her back on the man, "this thing wants to make sure we're defenseless. It wants the upperhand."

"You mean _someone_," Roy corrected, his arms crossing his chest. "Some nutjob is out there, and he just stole our gear."

The last straw had been broken, and Kitty was ready to pull out her only knife and stab Roy in the face for correcting her, but Dean had taken her by the elbow. He gestured off toward the edge of the campsite, where Sam had stalked off.

Kitty let Dean lead her off, and he whispered under his breath, "Just let it go, and I promise you can punch him later."

"Punch him?" Kitty laughed slightly. "I'm turning him into werewolf bait."

When the two caught up to Sam, he had asked Dean to see their dad's journal. When he stopped to a page, he tapped his finger down onto it and turned it toward Kitty and Dean. "Come on, man," Dean sighed with a roll of his eyes. "Wendigos are in the Minnesota woods, or… or northern Michigan. I've never heard of one this far west."

"Think about it, Dean; the claws, the way it can mimic a human voice…"

Dean huffed and held his gun up in the air. "Then this is useless." He then turned and stared expectantly at Kitty. "I wouldn't assume you have a flame thrower on you."

Her jaw dropped slightly as she stared at Dean like he was completely nuts. "Sorry," she started, sarcastically. "Must have left it in my other bra."


End file.
